November 2002 Learning and teaching day

The Xgrain project

Easy entry into bibliographic searching for inexperienced users

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Project Aim • To enhance and promote the use and

usability of:

• Abstracting and Indexing services

• Electronic Tables of Contents

• These services lie within the JISC Information Environment and are used in learning and teaching, as well as research

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Why the JISC IE?• It contains quality, reviewed resources

• It eases access to resources while maximising security by using Athens

• It allows download of information and learning resources for incorporation into learning materials and essays while protecting copyright and IPR

• It lets holders of resources make them widely available and demonstrate their usefulness

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Project Objectives• To enable Z39.50 cross-searching between

abstracting and indexing and tables of contents services

• To provide an interface to enable a student to carry out 'shallow' cross-searching with an option to link to the native interfaces

• To develop a cross-searching interface for learning and teaching

• To make learning materials available to students and teachers

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Why?• To encourage students to use abstracting

and indexing services– JISC studies suggest they are not widely

used• To minimise the number of interfaces

students have to learn• To save users from logging on many times to

different services• To encourage A & I use in Learning and

Teaching

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Example

• Sarah is a student at Heriot-Watt University studying for an MEng in Civil and Environmental Engineering

• Project groups are asked to devise standard procedures for flood-risk assessment of development sites

• They need to know what factors to consider

• How does she find out?• Friend, library, Google, tutor

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Some time later...

• She has 283,000 hits on Google - are they any use?

• She has looked at some recommended databases - the different interfaces are confusing to her

• It has taken a long time to get this far, re-doing her search each time

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Back to the drawing board...

• She asks a lecturer for help• The lecturer tells her about Xgrain, a cross-

search tool that looks for A&I references across the IE and explains that:– Databases in the IE have been evaluated as

containing good quality information– She does not need to know what databases

her institution subscribes to as Xgrain knows by her Athens username

– She only needs to type in her search once

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Searching Xgrain

Sarah types in her search, “flood risk”

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Recap on benefits

• One interface• Only need to search once• Resources are evaluated, good quality• No need for student to know a list of

databases• A link to the native interface

– This means the student can directly usea database that appeals to them

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Useful URLs

• Xgrain– http://edina.ac.uk/projects/joinup/xgrain/

• EDNER– http://www.cerlim.ac.uk/edner/welcome.html

• UK PBL (Problem Based Learning) site– http://www.hss.coventry.ac.uk/pbl/

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

Learning Materials

• An aim of the project was to collect a series of online learning materials. We have already received a number of these for use by students

• They include topics such as– Common searching problems– Why cross-search– Using information in the real world

• You will be able to see some of these materials now

November 2002 Learning and teaching day

http://edina.ac.uk